Beware - Auto Gallery Service tried to rip me off

I surrendered the card as payment for the service, but can confirm that it indeed had an expiration date on the back of the card. This is why I took it in for an alignment just to get something done before it's expiration date.

 

I too used the $500 gift card to get the annual service done on my 430. No issues whatsoever, AG picked the car up at the house, serviced it and droped it off. I clearly remember that the gift card had an expiration date, but don't remember what it was. I have been using the AG service department for almost 3 years now and have never had an issue.

Leon

 

The old "motor mount ploy"...it happened to me also on the 355. On the CS they tried to sell me an alarm battery 3 months after they replaced the battery. I'm not sure if they purposely try to rip people off or are lazy and incompetent.

 

My card expired on 01/13/2010. I just looked at it. They didn't take mine away at the time if the service but they gave me the discount.

 

Well said Tim.

 

LOL! $500 gift cards for which they over-charge you $500 on something else for. LOL.
+$500 - $500 = 0
Ignorance is bliss.
LOL

 

I mean come on think about it LOL

 

If people are involved, mistakes will happen.

Applying logic and old fashioned common sense, a small percent of AG customers are on F-chat and only a percent of those are posting negatively.. how exactly is this different from every other service shop catering to a specific marque?

Threads like this are extremely useful. If I was in charge at AG, I would make sure someone kept tabs on F-chat and car related social feeds to make things right.

The image below says it far more eloquently than I can.
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Exactly.

Additionally in any business there are a percentage of clients you do not want. Some are more trouble than they are worth. You would be surprised how that is sometimes conveyed.

 

i dont think just because someone isn't a paid subscriber that u should consider him a newb and disrespect him. LOL FCHAT. I know way too many people that have had more than one issue(including myself) with AG to discredit anyone. point is AG will do what AG wants to do. i for one will not go back and thats why i ordered my 458 at FBH . not my loss and im sure they dont care either . GL AG

 

Seems like they know this situation exists and they use it to jack up the estimate. Where as FOC does not. Pretty clear who's on the up and up. Hey it's your money but I'm sure that there isn't one person reading this who isn't thinking, "hmm, if I use AG I better keep a close eye on them. Or was that previous huge bill justified?" Either that or I need to steer clear altogether. The word gets out too quickly to try to get away with stuff like this. That's old school thinking. FOC gets high marks here for sure. No dog in this fight although I know how Alan and FOC operate and this is a perfect real life example.

 

The expiration date was absolutely on the back. I noticed this when I got mine and scheduled an oil change so that I wouldn't lose the $500. I think the oil change was actually about $250 but hey, at the end of the day it was free.

 

Sad to see they are back to their old ways. I had my previous Ferrari's motor mounts changed quite a few times until I questioned it. Then miraculously they never needed them replaced again. I have since moved on

 

The only problem I've had with AG, is cashing my checks. They held on to them for several months before finally making a depost. Not that that was exactly a "problem", per se.

But then I deal exclusively with Eric. Maybe that's the difference.

 

Dropped in to see what's up in the old Ferrarihood, some things never change. Same thread (different names, models, etc) was written 10 years ago and will be written 10 years from now...only, by then, Kia or Hyundai will likely own Ferrari. Just sayin'

 

Answer this AG fans.

Here is one of their 'coupons'.
http://www.theautogalleryferrari.com/specials/service.htm

Look at the coupon for Clutch Special. Notice how it says 'ADDITIONAL ITEMS THAT MAY BE NEEDED WILL BE EXTRA .... ETC ETC'

Ok, so let me ask you this AG fans, one additional 'EXTRA' item would be the Throw Out Bearing, an item which quite frankly should ALWAYS be replaced and not be labeled as 'EXTRA'.
Because who in their right mind would go through all the labor of removing the trans and NOT replacing this item?
Thus, it is clear the bill will only go up from 'their coupon special',,,,, ALWAYS ... EVERYTIME......thus, this is clearing bait and switch at its finest.

Explain it.

 

The logical question is what do they charge for the throw out bearing gotcha(and whatever else they'll try to include) and by the time you factor that in is it any deal at all? Forget about them hitting you up for the default motor mounts(that is if you're new on the block and a little goofy looking ) that don't really need to be done.

 

Sounds scary! I've heard more than a few people bad mouth that Dealership. I'm sure there's some truth to what's going on there? Dealerships will always be far more expensive than the Independant shops and almost always lack the personal touch we love with these cars!

 

Just noticed this guys story in the 360 section.....sheesh.

"I looked at two 360s from two different Ferrari dealers in last few weeks. I live in the Bay area, and one Ferrari was located in Auto Gallery near LA. I decided to get a PPI done by an independent Ferrari mechanic recommended by one of the F chat member before I actually flew down to take a look. I had the price negotiated in advance. I am glad I got the PPI because the mechanic found two major issues withbthe car even after I was told by the sales guy multiple times over the phone that the car had passed the dealer's inspection and that the car had no body damage or paint work done; it had a cracked front bumper with evidence of poorly repaired and painted work, and a fractured transmission mount. I decided not to purchase that car. I was out $350, but saved me thousands of dollars at the end by not getting into a car that would have coated me a lot of money to repair."

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=140047119&postcount=6

PS - they hit everyone up they can for motor mounts and whatever else but when it comes time to sell a car their own dealer inspections can't find a fractured transmission mount or cracked and repaired front bumper???????

 

While this sounds intuitively obvious I recently read this thread;
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=280257&page=5

To summarize, 3 months by the PNW's most experienced old-timer independent and ex-F1 mechanic being stumped was resolved in 2 hours by the local dealersip with the correct modern equipment.

The original poster even started a new thread to separate the resolution from the original post (saving face to the independent?)
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=297261

 

Dear JerryZ and Fellow FChatters:

Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is John Kerley and I am the Service & Parts Director for the Auto Gallery which sells and services Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Maserati, Audi and in the future, McLaren. I have been with the Auto Gallery for approx 16 months and during this time, I’ve worked diligently to improve the service the Auto Gallery provides with special attention being paid to how the customer is treated. While I feel we have made sincere progress in trying to meet these goals, we recognize that we can further improve. Although I do not have firsthand experience with the dealership from several years ago, I am aware that it didn’t have the best of reputations and thus have made it my personal goal to improve its reputation through better customer service.

Upon first hearing about this thread late Tuesday, 11/2/2010, I became extremely concerned and immediately sought clarification about the service of Jerry’s car.

First thing Wednesday, 11/3/2010, morning, we contacted Ferrari of Orange County and since Jerry’s car was currently at their shop, arranged for Dave Melton (Auto Gallery’s Ferrari Service Manager and former Ferrari shop foreman) to inspect Jerry’s car. FOC graciously agreed and Dave met with Allan Woodard (FOC’s Service Manager) later that morning.

At FOC, Dave spent time inspecting Jerry’s car and was able to demonstrate how to properly inspect the motor mounts. The mounts are comprised of a rubber “bushing” that is capped with metal plates on both the top and middle of the bushing. The plates are affixed to the bushing and as a whole, the bushing and plates provide shear, tensile and compression strength. If the plates become detached from the rubber the structural integrity of the mount is jeopardized and encourages undesirable movement of the motor. Further, deterioration of the mount will cause the mount to separate into two pieces at which time the mount has completely failed and the motor is not properly secured. Additionally, a failed motor mount will cause premature wear on the transmission mount. In order to see this separation, one has to lift the motor with a pry bar. A visual inspection will not indicate if the mounts are still good. We are not sure whether or not FOC is aware how to completely test the mounts including the application of a stress test and I am not indicating any fault by them but am suggesting that the manner in which the Auto Gallery tests the mounts is a proven method. At the end of the inspection, it was concluded that the mounts were bad and in the Auto Gallery’s position, need to be replaced.

On Thursday 11/4/2010, morning, calls were made to Ferrari North America to determine what constitutes a bad motor mount. Four separate individuals, including one who was Ferrari’s after sale technical engineer at the time the F430 was being produced and who was also involved with the engineering of the Enzo, all four clearly state the mounts in question need to be replaced. And due to the stress placed on the trans mount by the free floating engine that too should have been recommended. Pictures of Jerry’s mounts were forwarded to all four (4) individuals and are attached to this message. In addition, I met with three (3) of them in person late last week, 11/11/2010, to reconfirm the findings.



I did further research concerning the motor mounts issue and discovered that:

• Eight other dealers, including Ferrari NA stock these mounts which indicates that there is a demand for them. Of course this is not to say that other dealers have not sold them, just that their demand may not warrant stocking them. A set was sold to Ferrari Long Island within the last 30 days which exemplifies this point.

• The Auto Gallery replaced engine mounts on five F430s in the past three years. During this period, 362 individual F430s were serviced.

• I have personally viewed two other F430s in my shop recently that DO NOT have broken mounts refuting Jerry's comment that Allan said they all do it. His quote: “FOC's position is that almost all of the cars that they service (not just the 430's) have had the metal separated from the rubber on the motor mount.)”

In Jerry’s initial post, he said that we said the transmission cased was cracked, that is absolutely false, we did not say that. If indeed it was cracked, we would’ve quoted him closer to $30,000 for that service.

As with all cars serviced here, open recalls and campaigns are run. For Jerry’s car, Campaign number 290 was outstanding and performed (exhaust tip replacement). With regards to the exhaust manifolds, they do not show up on any campaign or recall list, but noise characteristic of cracks in the manifolds were noted on Jerry’s manifolds and new manifolds were ordered. Manifold replacement is performed under the cars emission warranty and while we did forget to mention to Jerry that his were cracked and new replacements were ordered, we did so in his best interest.

For background information, the $500 discount cards were given to participants of the Pauper’s Las Vegas Run. We maintain that the cards were a good incentive to bring new customers into the Auto Gallery and to show support and help to existing customers. As mentioned previously, customers have used the cards for requested service and we did not add unnecessary service items. We do not operate in a BAIT-AND-SWITCH manner and wholeheartedly disapprove of such antics. The card was not looked upon as an open “check list” to add service repairs. No customer had any issue with the expiration date of the card.

I would like to thank Jerry for taking the time from his busy schedule to discuss this matter over the phone on Wednesday. I regret that a better outcome did not occur on both sides and am disappointed to lose him as a customer since we greatly appreciate each and every customer. I wish him many good years with his Ferrari. That being said, should there still remain any doubt regarding our findings, I will personally set up an on site visit between Jerry and Ferrari NA.

The Auto Gallery will continue to support exotic car events and functions and will continually seek to improve its customer service. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me at 818 884-4411 or by email at [email protected].


Sincerely,
John Kerley
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Nicely said. Kudos to John and the AG, great post.

John, when it is time for me, you guys will get my business.
Thank you for sponsoring Supercar Sunday, for helping with Motor4toys and for Sponsoring the Spring Pauper's run.

 

Thanks for the picture

Those mounts are toast. Anyone who thought you could just eyeball them needs to go back to school.

Here is what they will look like when they are removed. And yes they do need replacement quite commonly.
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Just because that side piece has shifted out it's toast? Sure if you're looking to help justify a $3K fix it bill. I'd trust what Alan has to say not unless they've changed their position. His techs are top notch and they're a straight up shop.

PS - Those motor mounts look to be a weak link if they shift like that under normal street use.